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| Diagram of 4 crops being rotated from year to year |
Crop rotation is a practice that many crop farmers use that involves the growing of a series of different crops in the same area from season to season, rotating which crop is in which field each season, to gain benefits from the yield. The benefit of using crop rotation is to avoid the build up of pathogens and unwanted pests that often occur when a specific plant species is grown in the same field continuously. Crop rotation can also improve soil structure and fertility.
Why use crop rotation?
Crop rotation avoids a decrease in soil fertility, as growing the same crop in the same place for many years in a row disproportionately depletes the soil of certain valuable nutrients. With the rotation, a crop that leaches the soil of one specific nutrient, is followed during the next growing season by a crop that returns that specific nutrient to the soil. By using crop rotation, farmers can keep their field under continuous production, without the need to allow them to lie without crop for a year in order to gain back fertility. Crop rotation also reduces the need for artificial fertilizers, which can be expensive. By rotating crops throughout each field from year to year, nutrients is added to the soil. A very common modern crop rotation is alternating soybeans and corn, one provides the nutrients to the soil that the other takes away. Crop rotation is also used to control pests and diseases that can become established in the soil over time. Plants within the same group or family tend to have similar pests and pathogens. By regularly changing the planting location, the pest cycles can be broken or limited.
So there you have it, the reason why farmers use crop rotation as a form of farming used for gaining higher and more nutritious yields from crops. If you have any questions about crop rotation, please feel free to ask!
-Jess
-Jess
